(water rushing) (soft piano music) - [Host] Beauty like this knows no boundaries.

It doesn't recognize lines on a map.

These places have existed here long before we invented the idea of calling them national parks.

But with that title, these lands became protected.

And today, in a state overflowing with natural beauty, California's nine national parks are among some of the most spectacular landscapes on Earth.

This is King's Canyon National Park, known for its collection of the largest trees and one of the deepest gorges in the world.

Making our way down the gorge.

And this is the part of the road where it's pretty dicey.

You gotta pay attention.

We've come here in the off season when crowds retreat and autumn begins its soft songs of change.

All right, so we're having fun here today in King's Canyon National Park.

Beautiful California, where it was 175 degrees last week, average temperature.

King's Canyon exists in a shadow of popularity, just down range on the Sierra Nevada from the state's headliner park, Yosemite.

But for us, that's a good thing because these trails and mighty river have a quiet beauty and grandeur that doesn't need the spotlight.

And because of that, exploring here as the seasons change gives space for something special to happen and for lifelong memories to be made.

I'm gonna go ahead and say it.

This is one of the best camping spots in here.

- [Friend] Yes it is.

- This is like literally we lucked out big time.

The outdoors is always calling to us.

Hearing that call and choosing to answer it sets in motion a journey that can lead to a moment where light and camera conspire to capture the perfect frame.

(upbeat music) When you travel, the world becomes a smaller place.

When you explore with friends that share a love of photography, destinations come to life.

- Are you not entertained?

- [Host] We tell the stories of travel with our cameras, capturing images of the most beautiful places on earth.

But every adventure reveals more than what's found in the frame.

The people, the food, and the unexpected terms (people cheering) that happen on every journey.

- You wanna go?

- No, he's going downtown on you.

Hang on a second.

- [Host] Brings the full experience of travel into focus.

- [Narrator] Production funding for Outside Beyond the Lens provided by Visit Fresno County, Nature, diversity found in the heart of California Central Valley.

From Fresno and Clovis, you can drive to three nearby national parks.

By Hendricks Chevrolet.

- Hendrick Chevrolet is proud to support the spirit of travel in each of us.

Every journey has a first step.

Adventures start here.

- [Narrator] By Advanced Beverage Company, serving Bakersfield and Kern County for over 50 years, from our family to yours, supporting Valley PBS and the wonders of travel.

By the Penstar Group, promoting growth and opportunity in business through collaboration and partnerships for the future.

By Hodges Electric, serving California Central Valley for over 50 years, dedicated to supporting public television and the calling in all of us to explore.

And by Visit Yosemite Madera County, California's gateway to Yosemite National Park.

Explore the outdoor magic of Madera County and be inspired to discover more.

(gentle music) (water flowing) (birds chirping) - [Host] When we think of adventures and travel, our imaginations usually wander to places far away.

Long plane rides, navigating foreign airports, discovering new and unfamiliar places to explore.

But the real test of a traveler's heart is to still find adventure in places we know all too well.

To find something new in landscapes we've been to all our lives.

As Dave, Zach and I begin a drive we've all made many times before, not far from our homes in Central California, to a national park we know quite well, the challenge is set.

To film with fresh eyes on a two-day overnight camping trip in King's Canyon National Park.

(lively music) So King's Canyon is a park that a lot of times is kind of in the shadow of the popularity of Yosemite National Park to the north.

That park gets 4 million visitors.

I'm not sure what the visitors are on King's Canyon, but it's a lot less, but it's no less beautiful.

It has the tremendous Grants Grove, which we're gonna check out, home to the second largest by volume tree in the world.

And we're also gonna do some camping down in Cedar Grove and we're gonna do a little meadow exploring and all kinds of fun stuff we're gonna see here.

- [Host] The drive from Fresno, California up to the park entrance takes a little over an hour and rises into the lush conifer forest filled here with pines, fir trees and giant sequoia.

Our plan is to drive past the park's famous Grants Grove, the world's largest remaining collection of sky-scraping trees that are thousands of years old, and visit the popular stop tomorrow on our way home.

(gentle banjo music) On the backside of the gorge, Highway 180 begins its dramatic drop into the namesake gorge here, Kings Canyon.

At over a mile in depth, it's one of North America's deepest canyons, glacially carved during subsequent Ice Ages, spanning the last two and a half million years.

I haven't been up to Kings Canyon since the last large wildfire that burned here.

A blaze called the rough fire started by lightning strike in these mountains on July 31st, 2015.

Over the next several months, and in spite of massive firefighting efforts, the rough fire burned nearly 152,000 acres and threatened the park's rare sequoia trees.

The views from Highway 180 on this drop into Kings Canyon are powerful.

The landscapes here shaped and changed by fire are important for us to capture.

Fire is a part of the life cycle and ultimately the health of forests everywhere.

And while better forest management of these lands will prevent the mega fires California has suffered under the last 10 years, the scars left in the wake of these burns are a sign of renewal and growth.

Even though now, in places like this, it still looks like destruction.

- [Host] Got a little wet on us out there, huh, buddy?

- Yeah.

Starting to sprinkle a little bit.

It's refreshing though, especially after not seeing any for months.

- [Host] Yeah, we don't get rain very often in this part of California.

These strange water drops from the sky frighten and confuse me.

- Yeah, this is, this.

Wet stuff's weird.

- [Host] The elevation differences in King's Canyon and the adjoining Sequoia National Park are extreme.

In Kings Canyon, 14,000 foot peaks, the roof of the Sierra Nevada range, are less than 10 miles away from where we'll camp tonight in Cedar Grove at an elevation of only 4,500 feet.

Those contrasts and topography and the main highway that transect it, make parts of this road trip, especially in the rain, a white knuckle ride.

All right, so this isn't going the way we were hoping.

We knew rain was in the forecast and so I guess it's not totally unexpected, but we are, we're probably a good 10 miles away from the campground where we want to be at in Cedar Grove.

We're making our way down the gorge.

And this is the part of the road where it's pretty dicey.

You gotta pay attention to what you're doing here.

It's pretty narrow and it's a one way ticket down.

It demands your attention.

The rain's just now starting to let up a little bit.

You guys hearing that?

- [Friend] Yeah.

- Getting drier.

The lower into King's Canyon we drive, the worse the weather becomes.

It's also about this time that I realized that my sleeping bag isn't getting wet in the back of my truck after all, because it's still in my garage.

A rush departure from my house has led to a big blow it on my part.

No sleeping bag, the wrong sleeping pad, and no air pump to inflate it either way.

Thank goodness the lodge in Cedar Grove is still opened for the season.

All right, so we're having fun here today in Kings County National Park, beautiful California, where it was 175 degrees last week, average temperature.

Just kidding, it was only 116, but we're here in the back and bottom of Kings County National Park in Cedar Grove.

It's raining.

We don't have our gear really protected well in the back.

And then to boot, I forgot my sleeping back.

I left it in my garage.

(friend laughs) We realized that just as we got here, so- - Noob mistake.

- Yeah, so we were able, that's my sleeping back for tonight.

They had these really inexpensive wool blankets that were, that were beautifully priced here in here in Cedar Lodge.

- [Friend] Very luxurious.

- Yeah, I think they were only like 80 bucks each.

So I bought just, you know, so I went ahead and got three.

That's what I'm gonna be, that's gonna be my bedding for tonight here ff we can find a camp spot.

It looked like there were a lot of camp spots open and so we're just gonna go find one, wait for the rain to hopefully let up, and then build camp in the rain.

(acoustic guitar music) After a quick drive around the sparsely populated Sentinel campground at Cedar Grove, signs indicated that we needed to call the Park Service hotline to reserve a spot.

We doubled back to the nearby ranger station where they directed me to something called a payphone to make the call to reservations.gov whilst standing in the rain.

I'm on the recorded message from Hell loop.

After the usual frustration of navigating the automated menus... connecting to an agent now and finally getting connected to an actual human being, we paid our 22 bucks and headed to campsite 53 as the skies finally began to clear.

I'm gonna go ahead and say it, this is one of the best camping spots in here.

- [Friend] Yeah, it is.

- This is like literally we lucked out big time.

- [Friend] It is the best, it says it right here.

"This is the best camp spot."

- Oh, Zach says there's a sign that says "this is the best camp spot."

So, job Zach.

No, I love this.

We're right up against the meadow and hear the Kings river behind me back here.

So you know, little rainbow, pot of gold thing going on right now.

Rain's kind of letting up, it's a little bit of mist in the air.

It's pretty.

All right, let's set up camp.

There are several large campgrounds near the end of the road in and around Cedar Grove.

These are really nice campsites with bear lockers, pit bathrooms, fresh water and fire pits all next to the Kings River, filling the forest with the sounds of moving water.

(water running) (acoustic guitar music) (wood splitting) With night settling into Kings Canyon, the dense trees and valley walls robbed the fading light early.

A small warming fire and simple camp dinner is all we need on this night.

I didn't realize, Dave you were such a great big wiener chef.

- We do these on the tailgate from time to time.

(host laughing) - The skies have cleared, and with it, temperatures are dropping.

Yep.

Just like KB.

Kathy Ball would be proud.

But our hearts and minds are filled with the joys of being in this place at this time eager to see what tomorrow brings for our cameras.

- So what happens when everybody else uses all the buns?

- [Host] You didn't get a good breakfast hot dog?

- You got bitted.

- [Host] What did you, what did you, what are you doing there?

So we really love these big old hot dogs we found.

Anyway, Zach is making his breakfast hot dog.

- [Zach] It's a good frank.

- [Host] Stromboli.

- [Zach] Hey it's not raining.

- [Host] No.

Clear skies, we got some sun out.

See the sun sort of dancing in the trees right now which is always kind of nice.

It's time to start cleaning up our quick overnight camp.

And we're gonna head up to Zumwalt Meadow first for a nice little hike.

With camp cleaned and everything packed and back in the truck, we head up canyon to hike around Zumwalt Meadow near road's end.

The crowds of summer are gone in mid-September leaving a lot of the nicer viewpoints and trailheads all to ourselves in Kings Canyon National Park as the rising sun warms the valley floor.

(calm instrumental music) The South fork of the Kings River flattens here, gently meandering through the Ponderosa pines and cedar that framed the beginning of the Zumwalt Meadow Loop hike.

All right, early up this morning means very few people on the trail.

And the trail I'm talking about is the Zumwalt Meadow Trail at the east end of Kings Canyon.

This is a really beautiful mile and a half loop hike from the parking lot and it circles Zumwalt Meadow along the south fork of the Kings River.

And it's relatively flat, there's no elevation gain.

It's a very easy trail, and it's extremely beautiful.

Lots of payoff on this one.

Not a giant physically demanding investment but I love it up here.

We had rain yesterday, it's really cool.

The ground's really wet and it's got that great after the rain smell to it, which I love.

And Zach and Dave and I have just kind of spread out, doing our own thing.

I'll meet him up on the trail somewhere, or I won't, and that'll all be okay.

The serenity of a walk along the Kings on a morning like this is special.

There's a sense of calm here that compliments the setting, making this one of our favorite places to film in the park.

Okay, we're on the suspension bridge across the south fork of the Kings on our way on the Zumwalt Meadow Loop hike.

About a mile and a half loop hike around Kings Canyon.

See Kings Canyon in the background here behind me.

This bridge is one of my favorite parts of this entire hike, 'cause it gives you such a nice tranquil view of the river below.

A lot of shade in here, a lot of pine trees that are still healthy.

A lot of black oaks, live oaks and birch trees.

And I mean, look at these views back here, how awesome that is.

After crossing the river, the trail moves up canyon on the south side, into a talus field that's fun to navigate and opens up some of the first views of Zumwalt meadow below.

The meadow itself is closed to foot traffic sometimes for restoration.

So mind the signs, if you see them.

For an easy walk with a lot of great places to point your camera, the Zumwalt Meadow hike in Kings Canyon is a must do.

The plan is to start heading towards Grants Grove near the park entrance about an hour up the road.

Along the way, there are some worthy quick stops like the short walk up to Roaring River falls.

A majestic cascade that runs strong all year with a pathway that is fully ADA compliant so lots of of folks can enjoy this one.

The drive itself back where the canyon walls become really tight it's worth a few stops in the small turnouts along the way on Highway 180.

Up here, dramatic views of the King's Canyon River reveal the power and ruggedness of these waters.

As we climb up out of the canyon, we hit almost every turnout to enjoy the ever-changing views below.

(soft piano music) About the halfway point to Grants Grove along Highway 180, signs tip us off to dangers ahead.

Dangers that will require closer inspection.

Okay so we saw the sign that warned us, caution ice cream ahead.

So we've gone ahead and stopped at the Kings Canyon Lodge here just off of Highway 180.

And we're gonna see what this looks like.

Zach and Dave, of course, Zach's already up there at the window wanting to get his ice cream.

Not messing around here.

All right.

Now I'm wondering if they have ice cream on a stick.

Oh, they actually have some legitimate, yeah single scoop five bucks.

So I think we're good.

Dave, you're, are you gonna have some?

- I don't think so.

- Okay.

Dave's not a big dessert eater.

The Kings Canyon Lodge, built in 1937, was destroyed during the rough fire.

But it is now making a comeback with this popup ice cream and coffee stand.

Not something you would expect to find in the Kings Canyon National Park in the middle of Highway 180 in between every point of interest, but, glad it's here.

Let's dig in here, see what this is all about.

Oh, that's hitting the spot, dude.

I'm telling you.

I'm telling you right now.

Zach, I hope you are ready to go.

This is gonna be good.

- [Zach] I'm already ready.

- Yeah.

I know you are.

Miraculously the fire spared these vintage gravity gas pumps that have been iconic here at the Kings Canyon Lodge for decades.

All right, just finished the ice cream, it was great.

Another thing they have here at the Kings Canyon Lodge are America's oldest double gravity pumps for gasoline.

And this is cool 'cause these old pumps have fuel in them, they're completely operational.

And if you come on this drive, you can pull in right here and fill up... for $8.50 a gallon.

Welcome to California.

But- and that's for the good stuff, right?

So we've got 91 octane over here.

We've got a little 87 over here.

And the cool thing about these pumps is, these are vintage 1928 and still an operation.

Another cool point of interest along Highway 180 in Kings Canyon National Park.

Back on top of the hill near the park entrance and where the highway cuts south to connect Sequoia National Park, we stop for a stroll through Grants Grove.

This section of Kings Canyon National Park protects a stand of giant Sequoia trees accessible through walking paths.

Originally set aside by Congress in 1890, Grants Grove is home to the namesake General Grant tree, the second largest tree by trunk volume in the world.

Named after Ulysses S. Grant, the nation's 18th president, This massive sequoia also has the distinction of being the nation's Christmas tree since 1926.

All right, so this is sort of the highlight of the Grants Grove here in Kings County National Park.

This is the General Grant tree and as you can see, this thing keeps on going.

It has an incredible footprint, 107 feet around and it is, something to behold.

If you haven't seen a giant Sequoia this one is one of the biggest, and it's breathtaking.

You can see the fire scar in the tree behind me.

So these giant sequoias are really designed and built to withstand fire on their own.

They have really thick bark and they can withstand a pretty good intensity fire that as you can see in this case, burnt well up the tree and then and damaged the tree partially.

But when you look up, that sucker's still going.

Even though the General Grant tree is the main attraction here, the giant sequoias in this grove all leave park visitors gazing upwards amazed at the sheer size of these trees - The serenity, the peacefulness.

I know it's a little crowded right now but as the evening comes, it starts to quiet down.

You're hearing the wildlife, we're hearing birds that we usually don't hear in the valley.

My daughters are getting to experience this for the first time.

- Daddy told me that they'd be this big but I just couldn't believe it until I actually saw it.

- [Host] Right on and how, how about you Autumn?

What was your favorite part?

- I think they're huge and I absolutely love how pretty they are.

- [Host] Autumn's assessment of these trees is one I wholeheartedly agree with.

But even in a grove with most of the mature sequoias pushing 2000 years old, there are many trees here that have fallen, giving visitors a different dimension of their scale.

This was a standing, living tree at one point.

And look this Zach, there's this cool window right here.

Oh, there's a shot for you.

A sequoia through the hole of a sequoia.

Right?

I dunno how that's playing exposure-wise right now but that is neat right there.

I think Zach can get something out of that, can't you Zach?

Zach is a lot more talented than he looks.

(host laughing) I make fun of Zach, I love him.

Love him like a brother.

America's national parks are a true gift to us all.

And while they can be crowded in peak season there are usually places to explore away from the big name attractions that many times become the places where we build the longest lasting memories.

Photography in a setting like this, with so many iconic images to frame, is what brings so much joy to those of us who love to capture a moment from these landscapes.

But often as we walk camera in hand, focused on the obvious subjects towering above, we miss the detail of a location that in whole create the wonder that drew us here in the first place.

In places like Kings Canyon National Park, where everything is on such a grand scale, sometimes the image we treasure the most comes from when we make our window on the world small.

(melancholy orchestra music) (melancholy music continues) - [Narrator] Production funding for Outside Beyond the Lens provided by Visit Fresno County, nature, diversity found in the heart of California's Central Valley.

From Fresno and Clovis, you can drive to three nearby national parks, by Hendricks Chevrolet, - Hendricks Chevrolet is proud to support the spirit of travel in each of us.

Every journey has a first step.

Adventures start here, by Advance Beverage Company, serving Bakersfield and Kern County for over 50 years.

From our family to yours, supporting Valley PBS and the wonders of travel, by the Penstar group, promoting growth and opportunity in business through collaboration and partnerships for the future.

By Hodges Electric, serving California's Central Valley for over 50 years, dedicated to supporting public television and the calling in all of us to explore, and by Visit Yosemite Madera County, California's gateway to Yosemite National Park.

Explore the outdoor magic of Madera County and be inspired to discover more.